Thursday, 3 June 2010

Premises Liability Lawsuit Filed in Lake Tahoe Ski Resort Accident

The family of a man who was killed in a ski lift accident at a resort in Lake Tahoe, has filed a premises liability lawsuit against the facility. The lawsuit has been filed against the resort, Heavenly Mountain Resort, as well as other companies, including Samson Rope Technologies and Terra Nova LLC.

The lawsuit relates to the death of Mark Dickson, who died in a ski lift accident in August last year. Dickson was riding the Tamarack Express Chairlift at the resort when the chairlift became entangled in a line from the ZipRider zip line ride. Dickson died of his injuries, and his wife of one month, was seriously injured. Dickson’s family has now filed a lawsuit, seeking unspecified damages from the three companies.

California's premises liability laws apply when a person suffers injuries on another person's property. The nature and scope of these injuries may be vast. There may include slip and fall accidents, drownings, fires and explosions. Assaults, rapes and other violent incidents that occur on another's property, may also fall under the purview of premises liability laws.

However, it isn't enough for an injury to occur on a person's property for that person to be named by a California premises liability lawyer in a lawsuit. A plaintiff must be able to show that the property owner - or person who had control over the property - was negligent in providing a safe property. The responsibility of providing safe premises rests not just on the owner of the property, but also on the property manager, any contractors on the property, tenants, and companies involved in the maintenance and upkeep of the property. Therefore, there may be more than one person who has control over the property, and therefore, is responsible for the injury.

California's laws also expect a person using the property, to exercise reasonable care. This means that if there is a dangerous condition on the property that is obvious, customers, guests, visitors or other users of the property are expected to be aware of the dangerous condition, and exercise due care in maintaining their own safety. If the injured victim has been found to be at least partially to blame for his own injury, then theories of comparative negligence will come into play. Here, the damages awarded to the victim will be reduced, depending on the proportion of his negligence.